Uri Geller tested at SRI
Targ and Puthoff tested Uri Geller at SRI and reported positive drawing-reproduction results in the journal Nature in 1974.
1973 CE · 37.46, -122.18 · status: disputed
The account
The Nature paper, on information transmission under sensory shielding, ran with an unusual editorial caveat. The tests made Geller world-famous. Targ's own log of the August 1973 sessions, written two days after they ended, records misses as well as hits: Geller matched a bunch of grapes and a sea gull and drew the trident but not the devil holding it, but passed or failed on a rabbit, a tree, an envelope, a camel, the Golden Gate Bridge and a church (p.3-24). Targ notes that the two failed days were those with an openly sceptical scientist present, and states that no sensory leakage had been found in the shielded room (p.3, p.9, p.15).
The sceptical view
Psychologist Ray Hyman visited SRI for ARPA and called Geller a fraud, and stage magicians reproduced his feats. SRI didn't renew work with him.
Connections in the atlas
- Uri Geller
- Andrija Puharich's 'Nine' and Uri Geller
- Uri Geller’s television demonstrations
- James Randi
- Hal Puthoff
- The Truth About Uri Geller
- SCANATE and the start of remote viewing at SRI